Can Stidham become the next franchise quarterback or will someone else step up in 2020?

The Patriots have a hole on their depth chart as one Tom Brady, decided he wanted to be a pirate in Tampa instead of being a Patriot on 'America's team'. Turning his back on Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick, The coaching staff, teammates, and most importantly Patriots Nation.

The Patriots had the entire offseason both before, during, and after the draft to bring in a Big Name, High priced contract player. Instead the Patriots decided that their 2019 4th round draft pick, former Patriot Brian Hoyer and two undrafted rookies gave them the best options. 

At the moment Jarrett Stidham is the front runner for the Patriots starting job. The former starting Auburn quarterback became a Patriot in the 4th round of the 2019 draft, after a disappointing 2018 college season.

Matt Miller questioned NFL scouts on Stidham. He wanted to know if Stidham was a cheap option or a valuable option. 

"But is Stidham good or just cheap? 

'He's good.'

Speaking to scouts pre- and post-draft this April, many believe that Stidham was better than Jordan Love as a prospect and would have ranked as the No. 3 or 4 quarterback in the 2020 class—behind only Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa." according Miller.

People forget the prospect rankings after the 2017 season. They forget where players who stayed in college were ranked going into the 2018 college season.

Peter Santo's article from may of 2018 had a tell on Stidham value. "That could change in 2019 however, as CBS Sports is projecting quarterback Jarrett Stidham to go sixth overall to the Miami Dolphins in their early mock draft. The draft order was determined by SportsLine’s win projections for the 2018 NFL season.

The projection does make Stidham the first quarterback to come off the board..."

We all know Auburn was a dumpster fire in 2018 and because such, Stidham went in the 4th round in 2019.

Tylet Sullivan pointed out how good a 2019 Stidham had. "The former fourth-round pick did impress behind the scenes at practice as everyone from Belichick to Josh McDaniels to veterans on the team noted his talent and improvement over the course of the year."

Being over shadowed by Stidham this offseason is the undrafted Player who won a backup job in New England in 2009. Don't over look Brian Hoyer. Hoyer was a key to the Patriots winning superbowl 53 with his scouting. He is one of the most intelligent quarterbacks in the NFL, which he uses to compensate for lack of ability. Hoyer's career has had it's share of hard knocks but he keeps trudging on. 

During the 2019 preseason, Hoyer had a higher completion percentage than Brady (81.8 to 66.7), a better yards per attempt  (9.2 to 6.3), and a better QBR (116.3 to 83.7). 

Understand that Hoyer played against a lot of Backups but Brady also struggled with those same pass catchers in the 2019 season. Hoyer has never been the front man with a New England offense. He's always been the man with the second team or the subpar starting unit elsewhere.

Hoyer's best season came in 2014 when he took a mediocre Browns' team with a below average passing catching group to to a 7-6 record before being shipped to Houston for pulling the Browns out of the basement. 

In 2014 Hoyer completed only 55.3% if his passes to a group worse than the 2019 Patriots pass catching unit. Hoyer game managed and threw 12 touchdowns with a rating of 76.5. What could Hoyer do with a smarter coach and a better OC, like Belichick and McDaniels? Could he complete 60.8% of his passes, throw 24 touchdowns and have a rating of 88 with the 2019 pass catchers? 

If you said it's possible, those were Brady's stats in 2019. Brady also admitted if he doesn't trust a guy, the guy ain't getting the ball. How many times over the years have we seen Brady have a guy wide open and not throw to them? People were always like Brady's vision is slipping but Brady added and then made it clear that it was more likely than not he didn't trust the guy to catch the ball. 

There was a play Patriots Nation talks about where Brady had Hogan deep but didn't throw to him. Was either a playoff game or in a superbowl, if memory serves me. Did Brady think 7-11 was always open because teams didn't think he could catch? Ask yourself, would Hoyer ever ignore open receivers?

The Patriots have two other long shot options at quarterback. The Patriots will have to hope they pencil in the correct bubble to the multiple choice answers to who fills the hole under center.

The Patriots could finish with a pre Brady record and finish .500 or as Tyler Sullivan states, "the Patriots could be skimming right along even as the greatest quarterback of all-time walked out the door."